When to Choose Azure Storage or Azure SQL Database
| Question | Recommended Technology |
|---|---|
| Are you trying to keep costs low while storing significantly large data volumes in the multi-terabyte range? | Use Windows Azure Table Storage |
| Do you require a flexible schema where each data element being stored is non-uniform and whose structure may not be known at design time | Use Windows Azure Table Storage |
| Do your business requirements require robust disaster recover capabilities that span geographical locations? Do your geo-replication needs involve two data centers that are hundreds of miles apart but on the same continent? | Use Windows Azure Table Storage |
| Do your data storage requirements exceed 150 GB and you are reluctant to manually shard or partition your data? | Use Windows Azure Table Storage |
| Do you wish to interact with your data using restful techniques and you don’t want to put up your own front-end Web server? | Use Windows Azure Table Storage |
| Is your data less than one 150 GB and involves complex relationships with highly structured data? | Use Windows Azure SQL Database |
| Do your data requirements involve complex relationships, server-side joins, secondary indexes, and the need for complex business logic in the form of stored procedures? | Use Windows Azure SQL Database |
| Do you want your storage software to enforce referential integrity, data uniqueness,primary and foreign keys? | Use Windows Azure SQL Database |
| Do you wish to continue to use your SQL reporting and analysis tooling? | Use Windows Azure SQL Database |
| Does your database system relied heavily on stored procedures to support business rules? | Use Windows Azure SQL Database |
| Do your business applications currently execute SQL statements that include joins, aggregation, and complex predicates? | Use Windows Azure SQL Database |
| Does each entity or row of data that you insert exceed 1 MB? | Use Windows Azure SQL Database |
| Does your code depend on ADO.NET or ODBC? | Use Windows Azure SQL Database |
(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.)
